CA5

Long v. Gonzalez (Per Curiam (King, Davis, Rosenthal))

8 CFR 1003.4 provides that an alien waives his right to appeal an IJ's decision when he leaves the United States.  The issue in this case concerns what happens when an alien is riding in a car with a friend, who he informed that he could not leave the country, and the friend gets lost and accidently drives into Mexico.  The Fifth Circuit, analogizing the regulation to the concept of intentional waiver, holds that the alien waived the right to appeal because he "[b]y his own free will . . . put himself in a position . . . where he departed the United States."  Apparently agreeing to ride in a car that you know is going near the border and not paying sufficient attention to where the driver is going can constitute a knowing and voluntary waiver of the right to appeal.

It seems to me that the fact that Long specifically told the driver that he could not go to Mexico and that he never intended to go to Mexico renders the waiver here "reckless" at best, and not "intentional."  The Court provides a more persuasive justification for the result when it notes that the regulation, by its terms, simply draws no distinction between voluntary and involuntary trips to Mexico; they all constitute a withdrawal of the appeal.

Comments

[S.cotus]

Oh, so the government isn’t the only one rendering suspects.